The Drunkard

"My brave little man!" she said with her eyes shining. "It was God did it you were there. You were his guardian angel." page 351


This story contains a lot of irony. The young boy gets drunk and the father takes him home. It is expected that the boy will be punished for his actions. However, instead of being angry at the boy, the mother is happy and praises him. This is ironic because a young boy getting drunk is not usually something to be grateful and happy about. Nevertheless, the mother was excited because the boy getting drunk meant that the father wasn't drunk. The mother did not want the father to be drunk because he would then refuse to go to work and make a fool of himself. Another ironic piece of the story happened on the way home. The father was so embarrassed of the way his son was acting. The boy was singing and yelling at strangers. The irony is that the father was embarrassed about something he has done quite a lot. He saw being drunk differently when it was his son instead of him.